Hire for Character, Not Experience

The most important thing that we look for in assessing Venture for Canada Fellows is character. In essence, what makes someone tick, what motivates someone, and what are someone’s values.

At the end of the day, one’s character does not really change. Skills, on the other hand, can be learned.

A smart, ethical, and hard working person can learn skills quickly and in the end add far more value than someone lacking those character traits, who nevertheless has many years of experience.

Moreover, just because one has experience in a given field does not necessarily mean that it is relevant for the given position. As Geoffrey James argues, yesterday’s best practices may be irrelevant, experience may be specific to company size, and experience may be bad experience. Some individuals with years of experience have to unlearn years of bad experience, before starting in a role.

So many job descriptions have a requirement of “2–5 years of job experience.” These restrictions limit many top recent grads from even being looked at for certain roles, which in the end hurts these grads as well as the companies that are losing out on top talent.

It’s one of the reasons why so many recent grads find it so difficult to find opportunities after graduating from university. If almost all positions require experience, then how are recent grads supposed to get the experience in the first place that is required?

It’s time for a paradigm shift — where we begin to recognize that experience is far less important than character, and the ability to learn. Doing so will ensure that more top talent gets access to the right opportunities, benefiting companies, employees, and our national economy alike.